TCC is using Emirates' services to Dubai to interface with Coyne Airways' IL76 freighter services to Iraq (operated 4 to 7 times per week) and Afghanistan (minimum twice weekly).
Coyne Airways serves Iraq's capital Baghdad on a scheduled basis, with ad hoc services on request to all 12 of the country's other functional airports.
For the Afghanistan market, Coyne operates from Dubai to Kandahar and Bagram, with regular road feeders to Kabul (which can also be served direct by air on request), and the option to serve other cities such as Mazari Sharif, Heart and Jalalabad.
TCC Chairman Gerd von Mansberg says the services have received immediate and enthusiastic support from the market, grabbing a 40% share of the total airfreight exports to the region within a few days.
Says von Mansberg: 'This new service provides an appealing alternative to the variety of low-grade freighter operations out of airports such as Sharjah, connected via informal interline arrangements from South Africa.
'The combination of Emirates and Coyne represents a high-quality alternative option that is often marginally cheaper, and always significantly faster and more reliable. These are challenging markets, and shippers do not need any additional complications resulting from untested routes and little-known carriers.'
Major export commodities from South Africa mirror those already being carried from other origin points on the Coyne network: protective gear, vehicle spare parts, IT equipment, consumer goods, hazardous cargo and security equipment.
Von Mansberg concludes: 'There is also a market for larger items such as vehicles, which have previously required expensive ad hoc charters. We should now be in a position to pitch for this business also.'
TCC also represents Air Zimbabwe, Egypt Air and SA Airlink, and is the exclusive South African member of the EGSAC GSSA network, which has 60 bases in 30 countries. TCC is one of several EGSAC members that represent Coyne Airways.
